Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates.

• Cable companies offer free Wi-Fi — what’s the catch?
• TV Everywhere’s Counting Problem [All Things Digital] — “Witness Comcast’s announcement yesterday, made at the cable industry’s annual convention in Boston, that it has been working with Nielsen on a plan to count viewers when they watched video on an iPad*, using Comcast’s Xfinity app. For various technical reasons, this is much harder than you’d think, and the two companies have already been beavering away at this for 18 months.”
• Extra lane: how Comcast assures that Xfinity TV on Xbox 360 works well [Ars Technica]
• New Comcast services threaten wireless text and data revenue [Cnet]
• Comcast CEO Roberts not attending The Cable Show [FierceCable]

• The Cable Show 2012: Verizon, Comcast Unveil ‘viewdini’ Mobile Search Product Signs on XFinity [Multichannel News]
• Comcast service would connect home phone line to smartphones [LA Times]
• Cable firms warn against heavy government oversight of Web [LA Times]
• Comcast Asks FCC to Revoke Boston’s New License to Reregulate Rates FCC’s Media Bureau had recertified the city in April [Broadcasting & Cable]
• Cable Show 2012: Comcast To Take X1 Guide To Some Existing Set-Tops, Too CTO Werner Says MSO to Deploy Cloud-Based Interface to RNG 150 Boxes [Multichannel News]
• Comcast: An Impressive 9-Month Run Has Sent The Stock Up To Very High Levels [Seeking Alpha]
• Comcast Ventures Join $12M Round for BodyMedia [Citybizlist]
• Comcast Spotlight Forms Advanced-Ad Unit, Teams With SMGx ‘CM 360′ to Focus on Targeting, Interactivity and Measurement [Multichannel News]
• Adobe Names Three New Members to Its Board of Directors [Business Wire] — Including Amy Banse, the managing director and head of funds for Comcast Ventures.
• Fake Comcast workers flee after home invasion [Houston Chronicle]

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates.

• Comcast to Sell ‘Substantial’ Equity Stake in A&E [Bloomberg] — “Comcast’s NBC Universal entertainment business exercised an option to sell a “substantial” portion of its equity in A&E Television Networks, owner of the Lifetime and History cable channels. “
• Senator Al Franken questions Comcast on Xbox 360 [TG Daily] — “Comedian-turned-Senator Al Franken wants the FCC to look into the way Comcast is offering streaming video on the Xbox 360.”
• Comcast offers ESPN via iPhone, iPad [Inquirer] — “Comcast Corp. made available to its cable-TV subscribers the WatchESPN service for iPhone and iPad devices, part of the TV Everywhere initiative.”
• 7 ways Comcast is killing the cable killers [Gigaom]

• Comcast customers lose access to e-mails; company investigating cause [Newark Star Ledger] — “Comcast e-mail customers throughout the nation have unable to use their e-mail service for hours this afternoon and this evening because of an unknown technical glitch, triggering a deluge of complaints on a customer service forum.”
• NBCU Plans $190 Million In NYC Upgrades Programmer to Renovate 30 Rock, Other Installations over Next Two Years [Multichannel News]
• Comcast’s first-quarter earnings rise 30 percent on Super Bowl advertising, more broadband [Washington Post] — “Comcast Corp., the country’s largest cable company, reported a 30 percent profit increase in the first quarter, beating expectations on the strength of Super Bowl advertising and its popular broadband service.”
• Subscriber data from Internet service providers [Associated Press] — “Comcast Corp. says it added 439,000 Internet subscribers to end with 18.6 million. That was the best quarterly result in four years.”
• Fans file class-action suit against Flyers [Chicago Tribune]
• Comcast lands a sweet Metro Ethernet deal with Sarris Candies [CED] — “Comcast continues to rack up customer wins for its Metro Ethernet service, with the latest addition being Pennsylvania-based Sarris Candies.”

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• Disney, Comcast And Why TV Everywhere Alone Is Not Enough [paidContent]
• Comcast-Disney Pact Signals More Deals Aimed at Fighting Netflix [Bloomberg]
• Comcast, AstraZeneca in coalition to control health benefits spending [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Comcast Completes DNSSEC Deployment [Comcast Voices] — “I am pleased to announce that Comcast, the largest ISP in the U.S., is the first large ISP in the North America to have fully implemented Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC),” which precipitated the end of its domain helper program. Then TechDirt does the important deed of tying this to its support of SOPA.

MIGHT BE INTERESTING

• AnyPlay Brings Live TV to the Tablet [Comcast Voices] — Read more from CNet here.
• Comcast’s new set-top streams live TV to DLNA devices [Gigaom]
• Comcast CFO: NBCUniversal Must Address Profit Drop at Film Studio [Hollywood Reporter]
• Comcast lights up AnyPlay for in-home live TV iPad streaming, Xoom support ‘coming soon’ [Engadget]
• Universal Sports Transitions From Multicast Distribution, Inking Deals with Six Providers [Multichannel News] — “Comcast’s NBC Sports Group owns a minority stake in Universal Sports,” says Philly Tech News.
• Today’s Cable Guy, Upgraded and Better-Dressed [New York Times] — “The cable guy is becoming sleeker and more sophisticated, just like the televisions and computers he installs. “
• Comcast, Others Beware: Traditional TV Viewing Plummeting, Says Survey [V2M] — “An annual survey from Accenture found that the percentage of consumers watching broadcast or cable television in a typical week on the boob tube has plummeted from 71 percent in 2009 to just 48 percent last year. “

GIVE A GLANCE

• Dish Network Reaches Deal to Distribute Univision Programming [Media Decoder: New York Times] — Noting that Dish competitor Comcast has amped up its Spanish-language programming through its Telemundo subsidiary
• Comcast Cable hires multicultural services manager [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “Comcast Cable said Thursday that Ruben Mendiola has joined it as vice president and general manager of multicultural services.”
• Winter Classic 2012 Ratings Are The Worst In Event’s History [SB Nation]
• Comcast coughs up refunds, revelations of service fee [WTOP] — In Montgomery County, Maryland
• Philly Tech News: 2011 Highlights [Philly Tech News] — Highlighting the Comcast NBC merger finalization and its sale of spectrum to Verizon
• CES: Comcast To Speed Up Tru2way Set-Tops With Myriad’s Java Software Swiss Software Developer to Integrate JVM Into MSO’s Device Reference Design Kit [Multichannel News]
• Comcast ‘Completes’ Docsis 3.0 Rollout (Light Reading Cable)

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscri ption for our Comcast news updates.

• MSNBC aims for the gap [Inquirer] — MSNBC employees, including host Chris Matthews, seem to think Comcast ‘has a plan.’
• TV Everywhere Starts Getting Somewhere [Light Reading] — “The battle lines on TV Everywhere content rights are still being drawn by MSOs and programmers, but the authentication systems that will make those services easier for consumers to access and help the category achieve some scale before industry-wide standards are adopted are finally starting to take shape.”
• NBCU International Loses Top Exec in Comcast Reshuffling [The Wrap] — ” Roma Khanna, a top executive for NBC Universal International, is stepping down in the management shakeup that installs Jeff Shell as NBCU International’s president.”
• Local Dwarf Couple Sues E!, Comcast [Fox 29] — A Collingswood, N.J. couple is suing Comcast, E! and Talk Soup host Joel McHale for what they allege are inappropriate comments. [Not sure what's the appropriate term here.]
• Mnet Inks Carriage Deal With Comcast [Multichannel News] — “Asian-themed entertainment network Mnet has reached a carriage deal with Comcast that will give the upstart channel digital basic carriage in several major Comcast systems.”
• Comcast Beefs Up Customer Service [The Street]

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get ane-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

• Comcast Posts 7% Increase in Revenue [New York Times]
• New NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke: NBC Network Turnaround Will Take Years [Hollywood Reporter]
• Update: McDowell: Deal Desperation Fueled Comcast Acquiescence to Net Rules [Multichannel News] — “Republican FCC commissioner Robert McDowell said Wednesday that Comcast told him the reason it agreed to voluntarily abide by the FCC’s network neutrality rules whether or not they were overturned by the courts was because it was desperate to get the deal approved.”
• Is TV Everywhere Working For Comcast? [Gigaom] — “Comcast had some good news for investors this morning, with news that the number of subscribers lost to pay TV competitors and online-only services had slowed dramatically in the fourth quarter. Could Comcast’s slower subscriber losses be evidence that its TV Everywhere initiative might actually be working?” H/T Philly Tech News
• Comcast, Time Warner join IPv6 test program [Cnet]

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• Comcast Chief Roberts Urges FCC Members to Approve NBC Purchase [Bloomberg] — “Comcast Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts asked two Federal Communications Commission members for the agency’s prompt approval of the cable company’s purchase of NBC Universal, according to a filing. “
• Comcast’s live TV iPad app is running into resistance from cable networks [ZDNet] — “TV Everywhere is looking like it’s getting stuck at home. Comcast’s Xfinity TV app, which the cable giant promised would bring live programming and video on-demand choices to iPads and Android tablets later this year, has run afoul of cable networks that don’t think Comcast has the right to deliver its shows to these new devices.”

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• Comcast, NBC round up Hill support [Politico]
• More Legislators Push for Comcast/NBCU [Broadcast and Cable] — “Add seven more congressfolk to the list of those who have written the FCC to ask it to approve the Comcast/NBCU deal expeditiously.”
• FCC May Force Comcast to Unbundle Modems [Light Reading] — As part of NBC deal regulatory concessions.
• Comcast cuts cost of entry-level cable package 25 percent [Inquirer]
• Comcast, library offering digital glimpse of JFK [Boston Globe]
• Voices Weigh in as FCC Nears Vote on Comcast-NBC Universal Venture [Comcast blog] — David L. Cohen writes
• Comcast-NBC merger expected to have net neutrality conditions [Post Tech: Washington Post]

WORTH NOTING

• Comcast’s Gilford Jumps To ABC As SVP, Digital Media [paidContent]
• The Buzz from CES 2011 – Trends to Watch [Comcast blog] — Perspective on the major Las Vegas event.

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• Burke to lead NBC Universal after Comcast deal [paidContent] — 52-year-old Comcast COO Stephen Burke will be made NBC Universal CEO after the acquisition is approved. Burke recently made the most expensive rowhome purchase in Philadelphia history.
• Stepping Down, NBC Chief Relishes His Long Tenure [New York Times] — Embattled NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker announces leaving his post, acknowledging the decision is not entirely his own, but part of a desire by Comcast leadership to have “their own team in place” with the close of the Comcast-NBC acquisition.
• Comcast Spends Big in Pressing for Merger [New York Times] — The piece questions whether the tens of millions of dollars that Comcast is spending on lobbying for regulatory approval of its taking a majority stake in NBC is an expensive form of machine politics or something more democratic.

Below, more details on the NBC executive shuffle, Comcast.net hackers sentenced and more.

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• Exclusive: Comcast Reshuffles Its Digital Deck Before NBC Comes Aboard [Media Memo] All Things Digital dives deeper into the moves at NBC, a story revisited by the New York Post with an pretty bad pun for a lede.
• NBC Universal-Comcast prep Olympic bid [Hollywood Reporter]
• Hackers who disrupted Comcast.net site sentenced [Philly Biz Journal] — Two of three hackers who redirected Comcast.net in May 2008 were charged with 18 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of nearly $90,000.

GIVE A GLANCE

• Zucker: Comcast Integration Top Priority [Multichannel News] — Before getting canned, NBCU head Jeff Zucker talked about integrating its programming into Comcast.
• Comcast Tees Up TV Everywhere Relaunch [Light Reading] Hoping for an October launch. H/T PTN
• Stocks soar Friday: How Phila.-area companies fared [Philadelphia Business Journal] Comcast stock jumped on Friday 3.62 percent to $17.48 a share.

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST

Updated 7/15/10 @ 2:37 p.m.: WiMax product reporting

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the European Commission has approved the Comcast-NBC Universal deal.
• Broadcasting and Cable reports that at this week’s Comcast-NBC deal public hearing in Chicago the focus turned to the deal’s potential impact on the future of online video. H/T Philly Tech News
• The Washington Post adds to the storyline of online video playing into the Comcast-NBC regulatory process, all after the Inquirer set the table on what the impact of the hearing was meant to be.

Below, get your $16, TV Everywhere is called ‘all hype’ and more.

• Multichannel News reports that Comcast’s internal surveying shows increases in its customer service approval ratings, just around the time that a ComputerWorld blogger shares his “tech support nightmare” with Comcast and cites it as evidence of wholesale incompetence.
• Ars Technica reports that Comcast subscribers from April 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2008 who used various peer-to-peer sharing networks can receive $16 in repayment.

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• The Comcast corporate blog shares its take on the Chicago public hearing, in addition to highlighting who the company says benefits from its acquisition of NBC.
• Silicon Alley Insider reports that TV Everywhere is ‘all hype’ because Comcast is supplementing its free video streaming service by raising its rates on other services.
• The Washington Post highlights some of the major conditions outlined for the Comcast-NBC deal to be approved.

GIVE A GLANCE

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that Comcast has unleashed its top tier 100 megabits per second download internet service in Philadelphia, after rolling out the service in the Twin Cities. Light Reading adds to the story and its context by reporting on another improved product roll out, “High-Speed 2 Go WiMax product.”
• The Comcast corporate blog also has a general item on its take on public hearings.

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

• The Washington Post reports that the Justice Department will begin an antitrust review of the Comcast-NBC merger.
• The Post also reports that a Senate Judiciary subcommittee and a host of other House and Senate panels want to review the deal.
• The Silicon Alley Insider reports that Comcast is in talks to carry ESPN’s announced 3d sports channel.

Below, the power of Comcast’s top attorney, the Tennis Channel is pissed and More.

• The Inquirer profiles Art Block, Comcast’s chief counsel, and his role in choosing outside law firms.
• The New York Times reports that the Tennis Channel has filed a complaint with the FCC accusing Comcast of unfairly keeping it on a higher sports tier than Comcast-owned Golf Channel and Versus, making those channels more widely accessible. The Times also covers the always growing costs of cable TV and how the Comcast-NBC merger might come into play. The Times additionally reports on another decade that may focus on the convergence of media, citing the Comcast-NBC merger.
• The Washington Post additionally reports that a collection of public interest groups have called for federal investigation into the industry-wide concept of TV Everywhere, in which cable broadcasters will offer streaming video to only paid subscribers.

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

The Inqy’s DiStefano reports that Comcast submitted data yesterday to the federal government suggesting some proposals for broadband stimulus would duplicate its services and effectively subsidize competitors. The Daily Herald adds that the company says that may make those proposals ineligible. Relatedly, a series of Philadelphia proposals for that pot of money came up short.

New York Times media columnist David Carr suggests Comcast’s “likely” bid to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal is foolhardy. If it were to get through, the Inquirer’s Joe DiStefano writes on the undercurrent conversation about whether the federal government would even allow the deal to happen.

After the jump, the latest in net neutrality, video online news and ten other Comcast links to see, including video of Brian Roberts at the Web 2.0 summit.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Washington Post reports that FCC has moved ahead with its net neutrality rule-making with a unanimous vote. PC Mag reports that Comcast is still calling such actions taken by the FCC to be unlawful. Last week, Comcast vice president David Cohen took to the company’s corporate blog to give their take on the tussle with the FCC.

Forbes reports that Comcast is seeking local ad dollars through an interactive TV version of the Yellow Pages.

The Philadelphia Business Journal’s Peter Key reports that Comcast’s trial of On Demand Online has increased its customer group.

Read Write Web says Comcast is sizing up to compete with Hulu and suggest that’s a mistake.

Silicon Alley Insider lists “eight things you should know about TV Everywhere,” the industry-wide, online streaming TV service for subscribes in which Comcast is playing a role.

GIVE A GLANCE

Cable Digital News says Comcast is beefing up its interactive TV platform, leading to such content making its way on as many as 50 networks by the end of next year. Light Reading reports that Comcast COO Steve Burke says advertisers can be coaxed into loving interactive advertising with the comfort of a big national network.

Broadband DSL Reports writes that Comcast and Verizon are still bickering about who carries the most HD channels. H/T Philly Tech News.

A joint press release announces that Comcast, Sprint and Clearwire are moving 4G into Chicago and Seattle, in addition to Philadelphia, as we previously reported.

Multichanel News reports that Comcast is deploying a spammer-monitoring system to seek them out before they grow in their attacks.

Last week, we reported that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts had a much trumpeted conversation with John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit ’09 in San Francisco. The company’s corporate blog shared the 43-minute video, which you can see below, in addition to giving a nice summary.

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST